Grażyna Bacewicz (1909- 1969)
Orchestral Works Volume 2
Symphony No. 2 (1950)
Piano Concerto (1949)
Concerto for Large Symphony Orchestra (1962)
Peter Donohoe (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
rec. 2024, Fairfield Halls, Croydon, UK
Chandos CHSA5345 SACD [64]
Grażyna Bacewicz’s status as a major 20th century Polish composer has never been in doubt in her own country. But the fact that her creative career occurred wholly while that country was behind the Iron Curtain has meant that it has taken longer for other parts of the world to appreciate and value the range and quality of her work. There are currently two extended surveys on major International labels and both can claim considerable artistic and technical quality. cpo’s traversal has already reached its third volume and has presented alternative versions – which I have not heard – of both the Symphony No.2 and the Concerto for Large Orchestra that are offered here on Chandos’ Volume 2. cpo has entrusted their project to the excellent WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln under Łukasz Borowicz so for collectors and listeners it will be a question choosing between equals.
All three works recorded on this Chandos disc were dedicated to the conductor Witold Rowicki and all reflect the perilous balancing act between personal artistic imperatives and the implacable demands a Communist State made on creatives. This is reflected in the subtitle to the useful liner note by Katarzyna Naliwajek – “Walking the boundary between two worlds”. The disc opens with the Symphony No.2. This is a compact [21:12] work that follows the traditional four movement symphonic pattern with a slow movement second and scherzo third before a bustling finale. Putting aside for a moment considerations of whether Bacewicz was directly seeking to embrace or challenge the imposed conventions of the era, this work, as described by the composer herself is; “[a] perfectly balanced work.. referring to the tradition of great classical masters and encompassing her own musical discoveries.” Certainly it ‘feels’ bigger than the twenty minute timeframe would suggest. This music is not as knotty or explicitly complex as that by some of Bacewicz’s exact contemporaries or indeed her own scores in other genres. Notable that its first performance was as part of the large-scale First Festival of Polish Music in 1951. This was a major political/cultural event meant to showcase Poland’s literal rebuilding post World War Two under the ‘benevolent’ eye of the Soviet Union. Naliwajek suggests a degree of artistic subversion by Bacewicz but I wonder if this is a case of simply accepting a very attractive, well-written and impressive score at face value.
Also impressive is the technically skilled and musically convincing performance of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Their ability to perform complex and unfamiliar music with absolute authority is well-known and so it proves again here under the insightful guidance of Sakari Oramo. Chandos has produced another exceptionally fine SACD recording where there seems to be an ideal balance between textural richness and clarity. Likewise the soundstage is both wide and precise so whether it is the dynamic writing of the opening movement or scherzo or the languid even lush writing of the Lento tranquillo the recording captures essence of the music quite beautifully.
Naliwajek makes a convincing argument for the earlier Piano Concerto containing elements of subversive Polish nationalism with familiar Polish folksongs buried deep within the music both texturally and by transforming the original character of the popular melodies. This work has not yet appeared in the CPO survey and here it is played by the indefatigable Peter Donohoe who at 72 seems as willing and able as ever to embrace unfamiliar and challenging works. Again much incident and variety is packed into a traditional three movement form that here lasts just 20:16. The work was written for a competition to celebrate the centenary of Chopin’s death for which it won second prize – no first prize was awarded. Naliwajek again quotes the composer; “the burden of pressure and restriction… weighed so heavily on us during this period” and then goes further to explain Bacewicz’s use of musical allusion to combat the ideological strictures placed upon composers by the competition organisers. The result for the innocent ear is an essentially lyrical quite lightly textured work where the melodies are direct and unaffected. The finale is more energetic in what can be heard as a more typical manner of the composer but even here the mood is boisterous rather than driven although a brief reflective passage just before the dynamic coda suggests something deeper. As familiarity with more of Bacewicz’s work and style grows, this does sound like a simpler less complex work but that is surely as a consequence of the prescriptive competition rules.
No surprise that Peter Donohoe plays with total technical control and musical finesse. Again the Chandos engineering ensures an ideal keyboard/orchestra balance. This is one work that has yet to appear in the CPO series. For sure it is well crafted and skilfully written – the nursery song-like simplicity of the central Andante a highlight – but on current acquaintance it does not strike me as one of Bacewicz’s more significant works excellent though this performance undoubtedly is.
The Concerto for Orchestra that completes the disc is immediately more challenging and interesting. Written in 1962 this is yet another compact but incident-filled work this time in four movements totalling 22:22. Although titled ‘concerto’, the four movements once again echo traditional symphonic form with a ‘slow’ movement second before a scherzo and finale. But it is Bacewicz’s use of timbre and texture rather than obvious/traditional symphonic form that might dictate the choice of title. As Naliwajek says (referencing the slow movement Largo); “motivic development is no longer the main driving force; instead the composer is opening her imagination to the whole palette of abstract shapes and new colours”. Elsewhere Naliwajek finds parallels with the music of Lutoslawski and certainly this score reveals elements of avant-gardism that are largely absent in Bacewicz’s earlier scores. She uses an extensive percussion section – tuned and unturned – which dominates the soundscape at many points to a far greater degree than these instruments have in other works. Additionally Bacewicz deploys a celesta, orchestral piano and two harps which further reinforce a very particular range of instrumental colour. Apparently the composer herself considered that this work was an important milestone of her evolutionary path. The sadness is, of course, that she was to die just seven years later aged 60. As is so often the case there is a tantalising sense of wondering where this path might have led and what great music might have been written.
The second movement is mainly lightly scored and meditative in mood with delicate gestures hanging and overlapping like some slowly rotating mobile. Lightness remains in the vivo (giocoso) which is all flickering half-lights and shadows with ghostly strings scampering in their higher register. Again all these timbral elements benefit greatly from being recorded with such clarity and fidelity by the Chandos engineers – a work that is defined by texture and instrumental interplay relies on such sophistication. Often a concerto for orchestra will imply a virtuoso ‘showpiece’ for the various sections and principals. While this work is clearly extremely hard to perform as well as it is here, virtuosity per se does not seem to be its prime goal. This work plays with sound but in an abstract rather than sensual way. For sure many of the results are very sonically beautiful but there is an emotional detachment that places this work more firmly within the avantgarde camp.
Listeners who enjoyed volume one of this series will find just as much to admire on this new disc both in terms of technical and musical accomplishment. Hopefully there will be further volumes following soon.
Nick Barnard
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